Is a Virtual Office Right for Your Business?

If you’ve decided to go global, or to set up a small, niche business that can reap the benefits of today’s world-wide, continuously expanding business environment, you know you’ve got a lot of pragmatic tasks to solve. For one thing, the issues of staffing and headquarters set up are bound to take up a lot of your time in the development stage. And since you’ve come to this stage, it is high time you asked yourself what the best solution for your type of business is. Would you really benefit from a long-term rental of office space, or should you rather establish a virtual office? What are the key differences between the two types of arrangements? What kind of business models are best suited for long-term rentals and which ones are better advised to set up a virtual place of business? Find out below.

The Cost of Renting and Staffing

Setting up offices in a foreign country for the long term involves very careful cost planning. When renting out a space for one or several years, you are essentially making a commitment to the letter, that you will be in business for a long enough span of time to honor the obligations stipulated in your contract. Of course, everyone wants to stay in business for as long a time as possible. On the other hand, the best way to stay on top of the business game under the current economic conditions is to be on your feet and, most importantly, to be able to fall on your feet, if push comes to shove. As such, if you are starting a globally-based business in a highly dynamic industry such as IT, marketing or advertising, in which the rules of the game are constantly changing, you might just profit more from establishing a virtual office.

Key Differences

When renting offices for the long term you usually receive a full-service pack, which includes the space per se, as well as maintenance and cleaning services, which the broker has contracted in your name. With virtual offices, the main advantage is that you don’t have to pay for utilities you never use. You and most of your staff are able to work from home or other remote locations, while your business contacts, prospects and clients stay in touch through a professional mailing address in a business center. You can use conference and meeting facilities on an occasional basis. Your call center and assistants redirect incoming requests via a complex communication system and, in a nutshell, your communication cost margin is driven down by eliminating everything that would be superfluous for doing business on the go. Relevance of Your Business Model Essentially, the decision on the type of office space you want to rent out is entirely up to you and is also inextricably linked to your business model, expansion strategy, mission, goals and vision for the future. If you plan to stay in one country for a longer time then, by all means, rent offices for a long time, keep an optimistic perspective on your success rate and hope for the best. If, on the other hand, you are a more adaptable kind of entrepreneur, then a virtual solution is probably more adequate for you.